Cyanide Discovered on Teacups Used by Bangkok Hotel Victims
Police report has shown that sixx people who died in a luxury hotel suite in Thailand were poisoned by drinks laced with cyanide.
The six deceased were found dead by housekeepers at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in the Thai capital Bangkok late on Tuesday.
Police suspect that one of the dead was behind the poisoning and was driven by crushing debt.
Two of the six had loaned "tens of millions of Thai baht" to another of the deceased for investment purposes, authorities said. Ten million baht is worth nearly $280,000 (£215,000).
Given the misconceptions surrounding the deaths, Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin visited the hotel on Tuesday and ordered an urgent investigation into the case, stressing that it was a "private matter" unrelated to national security.
In a press conference, today, Deputy Bangkok police chief Gen Noppassin Poonsawat said the group had checked into the hotel separately over the weekend and were assigned five rooms - four on the seventh floor, and one on the fifth, and were scheduled to check out on Monday but failed to do so.
Four of the victims are Vietnamese nationals Thi Nguyen Phuong, 46, her husband Hong Pham Thanh, 49, Thi Nguyen Phuong Lan, 47, and Dinh Tran Phu, 37.
The other two are American citizens Sherine Chong, 56, and Dang Hung Van, 55.
The US state department has offered its condolences and said it is "closely monitoring" the situation. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting Thai authorities in the investigation, Mr Srettha said.
Police reported that on Monday afternoon, all six victims had gathered in a room on the fifth floor. The group ordered food and tea, which was delivered around 14:00 local time (08:00 BST) and received by Ms. Chong, who was alone in the room at the time.
According to the deputy police chief, a waiter offered to prepare the tea for the guests, but Ms. Chong declined. The waiter noted that she "spoke very little and appeared visibly stressed," authorities said. He then left the room.
The rest of the group entered the room at various times between 14:03 and 14:17. No one else is believed to have entered the room, and police stated that the door was locked from the inside.
There were no signs of struggle, robbery, or forced entry. Police later found traces of cyanide in all six tea cups. Photos released by the police show plates of untouched food on a table in the room, some still covered in cling wrap.
The group's hotel booking included a seventh name, identified as the younger sister of one of the victims. She had left Thailand last week for Da Nang, Vietnam, and is not involved in the incident, police said.
The six bodies were discovered one day after Thailand expanded its visa-free entry scheme to travellers from 93 countries and territories to revitalise its tourism industry.
The Grand Hyatt Erawan is located in a district popular with tourists - however the area has also been the site of several high-profile crimes in recent years.
The hotel sits opposite the Erawan Shrine, which was hit by a bomb blast in 2015 that killed 20 people.
The cyanide poisoning case prompted Prime Minister Srettha to reassure the public that Thailand has put in place security measures for tourists. Tourism is a key pillar of the Thai economy, but it has not fully recovered from the coronavirus pandemic.
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